Why bloggers fail

Use a template Steal our content template and use it to force yourself to consider keywords, social sharing, and email subject lines in every post. Use topics that promote themselves The best topics have promotion tactics built in. Collaborate with influencers Collaborating with other bloggers turns co-creators into promotion partners. Email interviews are a great way to do this. Guest blogging Publishing on other websites is a natural way to make your content visible since the audience of that blog will see it.

Send them a link. Better yet, add the link to your email signature. Why do blogs fail? For the same reasons anything fails. Like anything, bloggers need a plan to get the job done long term.

Time is scarce. Resources are limited. So get serious. Commit to content and to marketing. Use your outbox to unleash a stream of content and never create a post without a plan to drive some traffic to it. Another short, sweet and to the point post Andy. A lot of people have trouble finding time to commit to content, so the Outbox Trick can be very helpful, but it a tree falls in the woods… Content promotion is critical.

So I spent an hour scanning forums this morning and found a couple of juicy subject areas then about 30 seconds scanning my outbox and without looking too hard found about ten possibles. Thanks Andy! If I leave in the tone of the emails, it might be an entertaining read…. And in a personal tone! That is such a brilliant insight and shortcut. Glad you liked this one, Adam. You saved me from having to write the answer. Are the best bloggers mind readers? It would appear the best bloggers know what questions plague their audience.

As you can imagine, this post showed up in my sent mail folder many times. Sounds like it was about to pop up in yours. I can only imagine all the great stuff in your outbox, Barry. It would be worth it to hire a hacker to break into your email, and haul off all that content gold….

Mag Also would love my articles to be shared by my most beloved travel blogger nomadicmatt. Thanks for that information. I agree with what your state about writing content. As my first post went out, I got some great advice about writing one post a week. At first I thought I was getting shonky advice, but 10 weeks down the track, with much research on what I must do to become a success in my niche and I feel like one hell of a lucky person to have gotten such excellent advice.

I am still struggling with marketing, but I also think, take one step at a time, I am in this for the long haul so finding my own style will take a little bit of tweaking, but I am in no hurry. Because I am a newby to most social media platforms I decided to write a post to other new bloggers because I certainly know how I feel.

And I landed on your blog thank goodness as I will use your link to back up my first statement. Thanks for the great advice. I also write for SimplyOloni. I love this post so much.

Hi, Thanks for the article. It's only a helping hand for people who are already reading your content. How many monthly page views do you consider not to be a failure? I just reached 1, just before being live for one month. I think a must read article for a newbie. Most beginners expect too much than actual hard work they put. It require hard work, dedication, patience and huge learning ability to make a blog successful.

Thanks for this excellent advice and great info Derek! I am already making use of it on my own blog site. With that being said, this article has some very true points that I should look into, especially having someone feature me on theirs.

Thank you for the advice!! I would love love love to get a referral from Zoella. My blog is a lifestyle blog that combines many aspects of a young, university aged population. These are the people who read her blog. For the second bit, I would love a shoutout from ohmyhomemade because of the lifestyle she lives.

I feel I can relate to all of her posts. I would also love a shoutout from Wonderland because their theme is again, an overarching theme that is consistent with mine!

Finally, I would absolutely love to get a shoutout from howtoglow because I really enjoy their style of writing and the people they feature on their blog. Fabulous read!!! We seem to connect on so many levels. As for me, I have always advocated for treating each other with respect. And that includes all aspects of our lives…. Dream website: AskMen. I also respect Joel Brown the founder. What a lovely and inspiring post, Deren. I really love your two points Devoting less time on content in the beginning with less readers My blog is in beginning stages right now.

In this short phase only, I have experienced dull and bright moments. I will definitely keep your in mind. Lori is my first inspiration. She is like a virtual mentor to me. Her story is very uplifting. I came to know about this blog, where Harsh simplifies the rules of blogging in a simple manner. They are bunch of wonderful people who shares wonderful things.

Their posts are bombarded with great information. Harleena and other members are very friendly and supportive. I have made lovely connections over here. Thank you for writing this article, and for giving such on point homework. Literally everything you wrote is exactly what is happening with my efforts. I am helping a small aviation simulation company called True Course Simulations that is trying to get off the ground by running their social media and content.

Anyway, on to the homework. Dream website — lockheedmartin. They are a leader in technology innovation, and if we could get a shout out from them we would be seen as trustworthy, innovative, and problem solvers. Other sites… 2. He is also a flight instructor who is interested in educating his students well which is our focus, and he values relationships which is a plus when it comes to getting a shout out. He is funny, has an engaged audience, and an active blog. Also, he is very receptive to comments as we have already had a small conversation on Facebook.

They feature their blog posts on their homepage which is a plus for getting noticed and feature guest posters. They seem like a really tight knit group which can be great for word of mouth.

Though part of me is nervous to even be writing this, the other part is ready to leap into the blog world and take on feedback. I just love writing about things that inspire me, but what category will that really be in? Hi Derek, Great post! Today i started blogging: I will give you acces to my great blog : babyghostroadtosucces. There is one thing i wondered, why is it so much important to get results fast??

I think you are right in some way. That said, if you get close to zero readers, when you are writing stuff that can be useful to many readers, you are doing the world a dis-service. The problem is, how to you get what is really useful out there to the people that really need it. Thanks Derek! I hardly get any comments and now realise why.

I have been researching blogging techniques and this has been one of the most informative articles out there. Well after reading this post which was insanely enlightening I realized I need to focus more on blogging about jewelry instead of random content that I think may attract my target market. Thank you Derek!!!! However, I absolutely love her style and blog posts. She has over , followers on Instagram alone, so any traffic driven from her website or social media platform is huge!

Out of all the bloggers out their, she is the closest to my own style. I think sharing the same sense of style is important cause it shows we are trying to market to the same target market. Also, their readers use GlitterGuide.

I think this would be a great marketing platform for me! Overall, I have a lot of work to do to get traffic to my blog. Thank you Derek for being so straightforward and original! I have been researching how to improve my blog for months now, and your article is the only one that stood out and made sense! Hi Derek, Love the advice. I have been guilty of this and had to learnt he hard way. I do not know if this is the best advice, but I built a blog and talk about anything and everything.

As long as it is useful information. We even have guest writers do it and we make sure they are offering something of value.

Lately we have been doing reviews for companies as well as rating things. We now have over advertisers and I think my method for promotion was someway odd but helpful. I did postcard mailings, went door to door in my local state and passed out door hangers. We printed 4, and went around and did grassroots marketing to promote it.

I am generating money form ads as well as revenue for doing reviews. On top of that the companies send us fee product in the mail. We do not do PPC ads or searches and still do postcard marketing mailers and door hangers. If it works why change it? May not be the most elaborate way to market but we are happy with the results.

Hopefully this will help other people as I quit my job and work at home full time doing this to grow this even more. I only have a GED, no college and just have a passion for what I do. If I can do it anyone can. I just started my blog a few weeks ago and love it so far. The article opened my eyes regarding content promotion. For me it is still a bit early and I will focus more on content creation. I think it all depends at what stage you are. It is sometimes really hard to look at all this beautiful content.

The top bloggers a content machines and seem never to run out of ideas and wonderful photography. My top 3 blogs I would like to get a shout out from is — they are photography based — run by asian girls and combine beautiful lifestyle and fashion. Beautiful photography and very inspirational. It always seems that life is just a colourful bunch of flowers, sunset paired with stunning looks and expensive fashion. Love the travel posts and there are a lot of Melbourne based posts I can relate with.

Down to earth — beautiful — just fabulous! Ah well. When I see all this stunning photography I think that I first need to take a photography course before I can start blogging. Hey Derek, It seems you fully understand the psychology of blogging. I am planning on developing a psychology website in wordpress. I am an online entrapreneur so i can manage the SEO stuff. I would really appreciate you advice on how do i need to focus on specific things rather than trying to talk about the whole field of psychology and ending up with a site going no where?

I LOVE the tip about getting content you have already created seen by more people. So simple and actionable! I think its really good and smart advice. Fingers crossed. This has got my mind working already. And I feel confident that I will not grow tired of writing or become discouraged any time soon. In fact I am looking forward to writing history articles for the rest of my life.

My blog is classicHistory. So to answer your question, here are the blogs I would love to see recommend my site:. I would like to see him take an interest in personal finance from a historical point of view. Any international travel advisory site — I write articles about historical events from all over the world. It would be really cool if some locals would take notice.

But, I followed everything you said and I get NO comments on my blog, not even one comment on any of my posts. My blog is 2 months old, so do you think that has something to do with it?

If so, when will I start getting comments? I also only get page views on my blog each day. I know people have gotten millions of people to find their blog with Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook, but I have no idea how! Derek, I stopped following your advice two days ago. My blog pageviews went from in two days! This post was so helpful! The best website I could DREAM of being linked to is one at which the news and, or feeds of the latest franchises for children nationally or internationally are posted about and sometimes commented on.

Because my blog, like my website, and franchise I am in the process of creating with novels, picture books, and novelizations of my movies. My movies are released to DVD and are in the family, fantasy, and sci-fi genres and all are animated and typically rated G. My franchise is aimed at children and general audiences at best. So people who have children and are interested in taking note of the latest in the news of franchises friendly to them would certainly be the best I could DREAM of to reach my targeted audience.

After all, I deserve respect for what I do and create. The reason is because I am an atheist helping the atheist community grow and develop with my franchise in the addition of aiming it at general audiences and children. A happy, fun, and possibly colorful website at which many parents and teachers, and other such come to view latest and often the best new information available on helping to raise children in happy and healthy ways.

Especially an atheist-oriented one. Because my franchise is aspiring to help this cause, particularly with children with more special needs. Because this can help me feel more vibrant in my working toward getting my products put out well and effectively so. I am researching blogging in an effort to decide whether or not I want to enter this space.

Your narrative offered some real practical insights that has helped to remove some of the clutter previously presented in other articles. I especially liked how you linked human psychology to the reasons why the flame of inspiration is quickly distinguished and motivation is reduced to nothing more then smoldering ashes, choking the will and desire out of the blogger.

I am still on the fence about whether I should jump into this large pond. I am beginning a leadership start-up, pursuing writing a book and the thought of creating a website crossed my mind; thinking it would be an advantageous way to build a following. To this end, I enjoyed all the comments from those with far more experience than myself.

Once again, your insights are words to chew on and digest. I thank you for your transparency and candor. I will continue to check-in to see what other advice you have to offer on this subject. Any other feedback to steer me one direction or the other is appreciated. A lot less. The article that brought them in was probably my best yet for my personal blog. It also just published on Huffington Post yesterday.

I had no idea how to leverage it. Thanks for sharing some great tips about why most bloggers fail in achieving up to their potential. Each and every point you made is so true for many bloggers.

Only if we would narrow down the niche, it would have the exact targeted audience, generating great results. My boyfriend sent me this article a day after I had a conversation with him about how I was about to give up my fashion blog since I wasnt seen any results.

Loved it and plan on follow you to learn more. She is one of the most dedicated bloggers I follow. Her content is good, but her promotional ways are better. She is my inspiration. Another great blogger who clearly knows what she is doing — she has been featured in numerous magazines and other blogs too.

Why I think this would help me? Their followers are loyal. They have tremendous influence and credibility in the fashion blog industry.

The number of followers is growing but very slowly. Top influencer for me would be Oprah as she is the top in inspirational connections. So how do I get connected to people like these to send readers my way?

Derek, Laser focused article demystifying the secrets to blowing up blogs. Other links would be stellar author blogs sites.

Great article — thanks. As I love design and enjoy writing, I thought just going through the motions of putting together some good posts on the things that inspire me would be enough.

So taking your advice and doing my homework, the no. It has been around for a while and has a readership that I can only dream about. A shout out from them would be like winning the lottery! It is Australian based but the content has broad cross-over appeal for NZ readers also. I would love to get a shout out from them as I have long been a reader and admirer of the founder whose story I can identify with. I like to think that the type of readers she has would probably also be interested in what I write about.

Leveraging of the extremely popular Remodelista blog, Gardenista blogs in the same territory as I do. However, Gardenista is more garden and gardening related, whereas mine is more about landscape inspired design, art and products. We could happily complement each other.

A completely different focus to me, but her readers are definitely the same ones I want to target locally. Thank you for posting this!!! Thanks for your advice. Plus, they all have a very engaged following. I would love to be recognized by artistsnetwork. Also, i would love to be recognized on etsy. Donald Trump. Finally, if i got recognized by TMZ. Fabulous blog! I blog twice a week with an occasional extra post once is a recipe, once a more learning focused blog.

This is more of a video posting site, but many Christians go these for clean humor. The posts are free, so it would be fertile ground for blog growth via video credits giving the links to my site and blog at the end of the video or in it during the video.

Older moms helping younger moms. Many of my posts are funny, but also teach- this would be a good fit for my work and can drive a younger audience to my site and blog. I have been told by my readers that I have a great voice- one that can make you laugh within the tears, yet enough humility and humanity to make people think a little deeper. What I lack in knowledge is killing my promoting skills online- yet if were face to face I could sell you your own pen!

So getting the desired fan base would take me just a little longer than my own lifetime, had I started in my embryonic state. I share, if someone likes it and comments, great, if not, great. Iowa Girl Eats www. BlogHer www. I have done. Being technical in nature, I have been playing with blogs for years, mainly as a technical exercise and and a way of testing SEO ideas.

Now I have my own business that actually sells services to real people, then its time to knuckle down to actually try and make our blog an effective part of our marketing strategy. This is more complex than it sounds, actually understanding what are your ideal clients is a task, and then working out which sites they go to is hard.

I think I covered the why — my target clients are likely to be frequenting these sites and any sort of referral from them to me would be quality traffic. I started my blog in April and I thought to get more viewers I had to produce as much content as I could. I knew I wanted to get into fashion but I was going all over the place. And I totally understand your point about how its not about how much content you produce but how your promoting the content you already have.

My dream website to get a mention from would ofcourse be Vogue. I mean is there really an explanation needed? Who else better to promote your sense of style and blogging than the style elites of the worldddd!

Another blog i would live to get a mention from would be The Beauty Crush! I am sure we have all heard of her but how great is she?! Started from the bottom and now has grown into this guru for girls and boys any age. My exact goal! Her site continues to grow, her business continues to expand, and I admire her style. I learn so much on this website and just enjoy reading this girl. Thanks for your insight and advice.

Hi Derek, Thanks for the article. So, how about it? People will want to check you out then. I just started my blog a few months ago, more of a way to keep my friends and family updated about my travels I plan to do a lot of it in the next few years but I would also like to reach other readers and inspire other young people to travel and be themselves.

Thanks so much for this article. My dream websites would be: 1. Huffington Post 2. Rage Against the Minivan 3. Social Triggers yours. Not sure I agree with you I have a sports blog that I post almost daily on, I have to put out alot content a every week.

Fantastic advice which I will now start following. I fully disagree with the statement regarding the creation of too much content.

You can never have too much content! Google Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird have made sure of this. I agree with you too Julia. The writer of this blog is giving wrong advice. People also fail because they are not creating good content consistently. What a BS advice is that? I have an authority site and my content is being shared by random organic readers through their Facebook, pinterest and Twitter.

The writer should be advising people to create good quality content that people will most likely share your content. Create content consistently because chances are you could easily rank for any keywords within each content and they are more valuable for anyone that lands in your site.

Often touching on political or philosophical themes. But I understand that if I am to get any kind of serious following — this is all rather vague. Does that make sense? I would really appreciate any help or advice on this one as I know it is a rather odd question and you have had many comments already.

I stumbled upon this post by accident as is often the case but I wanted to write to say thankyou. Since reading your article last night I have had an epiphany. I have been trying to bring to reality what has been vaguely in my head for some time but I had become so caught up in how the site looked what plugins it had I had forgotten to spend time identifying exactly what I was trying to say and to who.

Now that this is clearer I can see exactly what you mean regarding promotion. I now have a purpose and, more importantly, a direction regarding where I need to go to attract readers, aligning myself with sites where I can provide a service more specific to certain peoples needs but not in any way detracting from, or trying to compete with, those sites.

Social media is really over-hyped. Facebook is about nothing but superficial connections while Twitter is more of an ego thing. Most of it is direct traffic, then google sends me the next chunk. Almost nothing from FB and i have over fans. I have started blogging for just over 3 years now but I have only really just found my niche as a travel blog, before that I simply used to write for the sake of writing and this meant the blog was always going to fail. Good Tips and some of which I have failed on myself.

I started by writing about something I am passionate about and everything else followed. I would like to get a shout out on Sheer Luxe as they are a product lead site, providing a space for customers to shop, so it would be great to get my products on there.

Your article is based on a business website, for blogs such as mine that are purely for fun and personal enjoyment viewing figures are completely irrelevant. These are my dream sites: 1. Facebook PMD Center 2. Twitter — as a recommended account 3. Forbes — under technology. Blogging should first and foremost be a product of your writing skills rather than a marketing tool.

Creating a quality reader-oriented blog is in itself the best marketing tool you could use to find well paying writing gigs. Going back to what is said in this article… I actually wrote an article on Thailand and then proceeded to make a comment in a Thai forum.

I stopped and decided to contact the administrators. This really paid off for they put the link on and even gave it a showing in their newsletter. The result was 9, visitors that day, over 4, the next and then a few thousand each day for the next couple of days.

An excellent result. We openly link to the news websites but have found it almost impossible to get a link or recommendation back. If you fall into this category, then purchase scrubs that are red, orange, yellow, coral, and sage green. Send your man pictures of yyou in sexy lingerie on his cell phone or to his email so he can visualize you eeach day at work. You just simplified a very complex problem with us new bloggers. Thank You very much! I like her self-help articles on how to live your best life.

I think our brands would be a good collaboration because I could be her happiness self-help guru. She has money gurus, spirit gurus, fitness gurus, could you imagine what would have happen if she had a guru to simply brighten her readers mind, body and spirit day in and day out.

Finding Marie was like taking in a huge gulp of fresh air. I had just started my youtube channel the Stacey Flowers Show and I wanted to find examples of female personal growth and development blogger. But I was lost in a sea of cosmetics and DIY when it came to female youtube vloggers.

Then I found Marie and it was perfect. I was building a business and she was teaching WOMEN how to make their business into something that they loved using good marketing. I think a collaboration between her and I would be good simple because she is focused on help the spirit of somethings.

She teaches spiritual tools and I take it to the next level delivering happiness. It is a fact that a lot of bloggers fail but the reasons are different for all. I started my blog 2 months ago and i think my blog is on the way to success. This article was amazing and so timely for me. I started my blog almost 3 months ago and have seen little to no reward or growth.

I am producing what I think is great content but really having a hard time expanding. She shares similar style to me and I have been friendly with her over the years. I also think a shout out from pennyweight, design for mankind, and designlovefest. I think their readers align with the type of people I am trying to reach.

These people love design and are looking for inspiration from the internet, something I really put a lot of time and effort to give to my readers. Thanks so much! Because they are the pillars of food blogging.

Just them mentioning my blog will certainly increase mine. Hi Derek, The tips mentioned in this article are just spot on. Thank you very much. Three websites: 1. Just great. Thanks for the post man!

You have no idea how helpful this post was to me. I am a person who believes that success starts in the mind and is show in the world. My dream site would be Copyblogger because they focus on valuable content. My website focuses on the importance of adding value and brand building from a more mental approach. My other sites would be Think Traffic.

They focuses on getting traffic and making your business profitable. Lewis Howes blog. Everyone needs to learn the value of persistence and commitment. Social Triggers. Because of the psychology aspect of things. I believe that everything starts in the mind so alot of the info really resonates with me. Awesome stuff and great advice. I was guilty of all the time wasters and I am knocking on the door of three months. I can see this can be a timeline where most quit. Maybe this is blog salvation.

My dream site would have to be lifehacker. Lifehacker writes on a lot of topics that are in my niche. Lifehacker has a huge following. Minimal mac is a great site that has a great blog about productive minimalism.

Love the content that is put out. The four hour blog by Tim Ferris would be another awesome blog. It focuses on life and productivity. We specialize in the health of trees. Good piece and some good comments for sure. I could identify with when you talked about generating tons of content which sometimes became mini books on my websites at the time and needless to say I generated tons of content.

Your blog can turn into an income-generating source that makes you some good money. Brainstorm ideas and get open to all potential opportunities. Go to this article to learn more Open in a new tab. A competition assessment can truly shorten your way to success! Knowing your competitors is what you should be going after because from that point, you would be able to know where do you actually stand, what should you be focusing on, and what gaps you can fill.

There are several tools that you can use to assess competition. Some of them are Ahrefs and Ubersuggest. Therefore, I suggest you start with the free version of Ubersuggest.

Ubersuggest will give you some critical information about what your competitors are actually doing, like what keywords they are ranked for, what pages bring the most traffic for them and whatsoever. Be strategic in picking the right keywords, topics, and titles. Having a blog that covers a myriad of topics may seem awesome, but in fact, it can be the reason keeping you from succeeding!

Also, by running a broad sprawling blog, it would be hard to provide valuable topics and cover everything yourself, because that requires time and knowledge. When you have an infection in your eye, would you rather go to an ophthalmologist or to a general doctor? Tip : My tip for you is to stay away from a general or broad blogging niche. Find your passion and niche your blog down as much as possible to better be able to know your audience and your competitors.

This is a mistake that most bloggers have in common, and in most times, it leads to a failure story! Picking the niche can have a drastic effect on your whole blogging joruney!

I always recommend to new people who are considering starting their blogging journey to pick the right niche for them. And this is can be determined by your passion, skills, knowledge, interests and capabilities! This is a business that you would be involved into for months, or even years! In order to convince people in something, you have to personally be convinced in it first. People often get greedy about the different monetization opportunities for a particular niche, and they end up going with a niche just for the sake of what they can promote in this niche.

Basically, yes, monetization opportunities vary from niche to another, but monetization is not the only aspect of the game. You should make sure first if you can add value in this area or not.

Bloggers are the heart of the internet, their job is to provide relevant information for people who are seeking answers to their questions. Tip : Choose your niche carefully and let it take what it takes. Picking the right niche that aligns with your interests, skills, and knowledge can give you a head start. Do your research and brainstorm ideas, and you can check out this article as well Open in a new tab.

This is a common mistake among new bloggers. A blog has the ability to connect you with the entire world and you can literally reach your voice to all people around the web. Also, your blog can become the biggest income source for your family, that can even replace your job! Tip : Put your readers first and make your blog a stop where people can find relevant answers to their queries and questions! By raising a healthy brand, people will have more trust with you and they are more likely to follow you on social media.

There you can share your daily activities freely without affecting your business! I know, starting an online business can be intimidating, especially for complete beginners. But I wonder when people are looking for opportunities to replace their jobs without the willingness to invest or even spend a dime!

I mean, okay, you can make a few dollars here and there, by completing surveys for example, but this is not a sustainable income, this is not a business! But to start a profitable online business that can make you some decent amounts of money, you should invest. Invest in learning and in getting the suitable tools and resources!

Online resources and tools are endless, and they are meant to help you succeed in your business. Affiliate Programs Masterlist is a great solution! A must-have for all bloggers! Tip : Finally, my last tip for you is to remain constant on your goals, be patient, and just put in the hard work.

Blogging is a lucrative business opportunity that can be fruitful and much rewarding. But, what most people think is that blogging is an overnight success. Though, it requires good patience, efforts and time.

There are literally tens of thousands of blogs are being created every single day, but a huge percentage of them fail and die a slow, boring death.